Island of Wings Read Online Free PDF Page B

likeness in her unruly hair and frail temples. Could he dare to own this new space that she had created for him? How skilled he had become at avoiding tender emotions! Could he love her? He shuddered at the thought. There were times when he had wanted to diminish his own humiliation by hurting those he loved.
    She looked up at him then, startled to find him so close. The light that entered her eyes seemed to flash an instant before it settled into dark pewter. ‘How is your work going?’ she asked, and stretched her back. ‘It is such a beautiful day. I think I will go for a walk.’
    â€˜A walk?’ he echoed anxiously. ‘Is that really wise? You know these rocks can be quite treacherous, and you have not been anywhere on the island yet.’
    She laughed at his concern as he went on, ‘At least wait until I have finished my work so that I can walk with you.’
    â€˜Don’t worry, my dear, I want to go on my own,’ she replied cheerfully. ‘I will walk up the spot you told me about the other day, the place where I will be able to see the other side of the island.’
    â€˜ Bearradh na h-Eige ,’ he said. ‘It means the edge of the Gap. You must by no means walk all the way up there on your own.’
    The week before, the natives had showed him the spot where the hill ends and the sea cliffs take over. The cliffs were about six hundred feet high and, if nothing else, the view would surely give her vertigo, he thought.
    â€˜Well, I will only walk as far as the ridge up there –’ she pointed towards a ledge above the hamlet – ‘as I would so like to see the view of the bay from above,’ she said reasonably as she heard the concern in his voice.
    â€˜But you are really not in a fit state to walk up a hill,’ he insisted.
    Lizzie could feel a vague irritation rising within her. ‘The baby is not due for another few months, and if it makes you feel better I will bring him along.’ She pointed at the bewildered puppy at her feet.
    Now it was his turn to laugh. ‘All right, with such a champion at your side I cannot deny you the pleasure of the view from the hill; it is indeed stunning! But remember not to walk any higher than the small glen with the stone enclosures.’
    She rose and kissed him. He let it happen although it was full daylight and they were easily visible from the clachan .
    Soon the puppy was bouncing ahead of her on the gentle slope above the glebe. It seemed to be chasing a fly or perhaps a more obscure creation of its own mind. She smiled and waved at her husband as she started to climb the steeper ground, her petticoats stirring up the smell of fresh grass and white clover. The sound of the sea was everywhere, but as she ascended the hill the cries of the fulmar became even louder. High above the huge granite dome of the east fell starlings were playing their summer games. Lizzie thought herself lucky to be able to walk as freely as this. She thought of her home in Paisley, where the smoke from the coal fires hung thick in the air and the factories were growing fast. She wished Annie could have been here with her to see so much beauty. She had never thought it possible for grass to be this green and for the sky to be this blue. The ground seemed to be illuminated from below as if some ancient, golden treasure had been buried there.
    She passed a number of cleit s, used to store turf or a catch of birds, and she thought they looked like a bad rash in the landscape. It was as if the natives had built themselves into the surface of the island and it was sometimes very difficult to distinguish between man-made structures and natural features. Nor was it possible to distinguish the ancient from the new. Time was no longer linear in this place where no one could remember who built the houses, cleit s and dykes and where the seasons were marked by the comings and goings of the migrating birds. The ancestors were near